Amazon launches its own ‘trusted’ version of Temu in Australia. Here’s what we know

The inexorable rise of ultra-cheap ecommerce giants Shein, Temu and AliExpress has made many enemies among retailers worldwide, with rock-bottom prices and low free shipping thresholds crippling many local stores and making marketplaces virtually redundant.

They’ve made themselves enemies of $US2.4 trillion ($3.7 trillion) giant Amazon, too – except Amazon has gone on the offence by launching its own version of Temu called Amazon Haul.

From Thursday, Australians will be able to shop for hundreds of thousands of items across fashion, beauty, homewares and cookware, pet supplies and other accessories through the Amazon app for less than $25.

The US multinational is hoping to differentiate Haul by billing it as a “convenient and trusted” alternative to the cheap Chinese-operated retailers.

“The ultra-affordable experience will give customers more choice in how they shop by offering access to a wide selection of products at lower prices,” said Amazon Haul Australia country manager Rebecca Henley in an emailed statement.

All products offered through Haul will have to comply with Amazon policies as well as relevant laws and regulations, she said.

“Amazon Haul will be a part of the existing Amazon store, and we will implement the same policies and processes to audit products.”

Together, Amazon, Shein and Temu have reshaped Australia’s online retail landscape, lowering prices, stepping up delivery times and forcing competitors to sharpen offers.

“Consumers are increasingly looking for value; price is the biggest driver of where consumers are shopping, coupled with an increased focus on discounts, researching online and deferring unnecessary purchases,” wrote respected retail analyst Ben Gilbert in a joint white paper with Shippit.

“We found a third of respondents’ delivery expectations lifted in the past 12 months as a direct result of Amazon/Temu/Shein.”

Retail consultant Trent Rigby said Haul’s key differentiator would be fulfilment.

“Temu, Shein and Ali typically ship directly from Chinese manufacturers, whereas Amazon can leverage its established fulfilment infrastructure,” Gilbert said. “That means Haul could, in theory, offer faster delivery, better customer service [although they’re getting better, these Chinese marketplaces generally have pretty woeful customer service] and stronger product guarantees – addressing three major pain points for consumers with these low-cost marketplaces.”

Haul is Amazon’s bid to capture the budget-conscious, younger customers who have flocked to Temu and Shein – if they get the experience right, Gilbert said.

“The challenge will be matching the rock-bottom prices of these rivals while maintaining the delivery speed and trust that consumers expect from Amazon.”

Temu was named by customer-spending analytics platform Fonto as Australia’s fastest-growing consumer retail brand for the 2025 financial year, winning more than 1.3 million new customers across the year.

Cost-of-living pressures have also helped Shein and Temu capture greater market share in Australia, where 3.8 million customers have tried Temu at least once and 2 million customers have bought from Shein, Roy Morgan data shows. Together, Temu and Shein are expected to surpass $3 billion in sales.

Coles and Woolworths have become increasingly threatened by Amazon’s aggressive expansion. During the ACCC’s supermarket inquiry, Coles chief Leah Weckert said the US giant was “quite disruptive to our business model”, while Woolworths chief Amanda Bardwell said Amazon now covered 40 per cent of what the supermarket sold.

Gilbert described Amazon as a “force to be reckoned with in Australia” and “growing faster than we thought”.

“We estimate Amazon Australia, by gross merchandise value, is now larger than Accent Group, The Reject Shop, Beacon Lighting Group, Temple & Webster, Premier Investments and Universal Store combined,” Gilbert wrote in a note to clients issued in March last year.

What’s the catch?

Australians will be able to access Haul only through the Amazon app – and only some customers will see the new feature, which is still in the beta phase and will be rolled out to remaining customers “in coming days”, the company said in a press release. Haul is not available on Amazon’s website in any country.

Amazon Haul was launched in November last year in the US, Britain, Germany, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Mexico.

To lure customers in, Amazon is adding a 60 per cent discount on all Haul items that will be applied at checkout for the first two weeks.

But don’t expect next-day delivery; since the products are being shipped from overseas, your Amazon Prime subscription will be useless as deliveries are slated to arrive “in two weeks or less”.

“The products on offer via Amazon Haul are manufactured and shipped from abroad and sold by Amazon,” Henley said.

Customers who change their minds about products can return items within 15 days if certain conditions are met.

The company declined to elaborate on what these conditions were or to name which countries Haul products would be sourced from.

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